– Will add more later once I figure out other possible combinations. –

NOTE: The max stat you can have is 50.

II. SKILL INFORMATION:

Thief Tree:

Hiding (Stealth)
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
Hides you in the shadows, and the chance of being detected by monsters is reduced by half.
While hiding, your movement speed is reduced by 40/20/0% per skill point. Not usable in combat.

Double Attack
Cooldown: 1 Second
1 Combo Point Acquired
Hits your enemy two times with 17/19/21/23/25% of your Attack Damage per skill point.

Deadly Blow
Cooldown: 0 Seconds
Hits the enemy with 17/19/21/23/25% of your Attack Damage per skill point.
Every combo point adds an additional 7% Attack Damage, for a total of 60% Attack Damage.

Combo Training
When you gain a combo point, you have a 5/10/15% chance per skill point to gain an additional combo point.

Poisoning Weapon
Cooldown: 3 Seconds
Applies a poison to your weapons for 30 seconds.
Each time you attack you have a 30% chance to poison your enemy, dealing 3/6/9/12/15% of your Attack Damage every 2 seconds for 20 seconds.

Grimtooth
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Range: 10 Meters
1-3 Combo Points Acquired
A thorn from the shadow rises up and hits up to 3 enemies with 16/18/20% Attack Damage per skill point.
The number of combo points acquired depends on how many targets are hit.
(Hitting 3 enemies with Grimtooth will reward you with 3 combo points.)

Shadow Fang
Cooldown: 0 Seconds
The target and surrounding enemies will be hit for 9/10/11% Attack Damage.
Up to a max of 10 enemies will be hit, but will deal reduced damage if more than 6 enemies are hit.

This build focuses entirely on dungeons and raids, and does not include any PvP talents, such as Dark Illusion and Shadow Assault. It maxes all of the core abilities you will use as an Assassin and leaves one point to put into other skills. ( I choose hiding for the increased movement speed, but that is just my personal preference. You can choose Shadow Assault if you want it. )

Why only rank 1 Cross Impact?: Because the skill is awful. A maxed Double Attack does the same exact damage as a maxed Cross Impact, except Impact has an 8 second cooldown. Not worth the points.

Why Rank 1 Grimtooth/Shadow Fang?: I mainly use these two skills for a small AoE (Area of Effect) Damage, or for combo point generation. Assassin AoE is pretty lackluster, and should only AoE if it is absolutely necessary. (With that being said, don’t completely ignore Grimtooth, it is an awesome AoE to use to gain combo points and spread Poison Weapon damage)

Shadow Armor: I have not fully tested this skill, but looks like a great ability to use for emergency situations. Maxing it would require you to take some points out of other damaging abilities, but like they say: Dead DPS is no DPS. ( Any other feedback from other sins on this skill would be greatly appreciated.)

III. ASSASSIN PLAYSTYLE/ROTATION:

ROTATION:

Assassin’s damage rotation is pretty straightforward. From 1-50, you will be spamming Double Attack half of the time until you reach 5 Combo Points, and then executing the enemy with a Deadly Blow.

Deadly Blow should ONLY be used when you have 5 Combo Points for maximum damage. (At lower levels, some people have stated that spamming Deadly Blow works better than Double Attack. I’ve never tested it, feedback would be great!)

Shadow Form is definitely one of the most important skills to get in the Assassin tree. It increases your Attack Damage by 30%, and makes you move 30% faster. On top of that, your rotation will change a little bit because of two new skills you can use: Shadow Strike and Shadow Explosion.

Because these two abilities have a 20 second cooldown, they should ALWAYS be used once they are up, unless you are above 2 combo points. ( Shadow Strike gives 3 combo points, so it would be a waste to use this if you are above 2 combo points. )

Dagger Throw should always be used if you cannot get in range of the enemy. This ability can still trigger Poison Weapon, so it is quite useful.

As stated before, Assassin’s AoE (Area of Effect) abilities are pretty bad. However, Grimtooth is still an amazing skill because of the combo points you can gain from it. If you are fighting three enemies that are grouped up, you can use Grimtooth to gain 3 combo points, as well as apply your Poison Weapon to them as well.

Hiding is a great skill in dungeons/raids. it allows you to sneak up to enemies without getting in combat, and it also doubles the damage of your next attack. Using this in combination with Shadow Strike deals massive damage in the beginning of a battle. (Make sure you don’t pull off your tank!)

Remember to throw in some Grimtooths if you are facing more than one enemy, for added combo points!

IV. CARDS/RUNE CHOICES:

CARDS:

Because of the insane amounts of damage in raids/dungeons at the moment, Assassins are forced to use Scratch Raider Cards (+6 STR/AGI/INT/WILL, +17 VIT) for the health boost. You can also choose to use the improved version of Scratch Raider (+8 STR/AGI/INT/WILL, +21 VIT) for added stats, but these are expensive and hard to obtain.

As you obtain more gear, your health pool will increase enough to where you can start replacing Scratch Raider Cards with Higher +Strength/Agility cards.

(While combining cards, there is a low chance of creating a rare (blue) card with really good stats.)

RUNES:

Runes are items crafted by artisans that you can place into gear with runespots. Gear with runespots are only found in dungeons, and require a Rune Hole punch (Made by blacksmiths) to create a hole in the gear.

Check if your gear has a “Blocked Runespot” in the item description. If so, buy/craft the appropriate level Rune Hole punch, and right click the punch. The mouse cursor will turn into a drill, and you can click on the piece of gear. A window will appear saying “Would you like to expand the socket?” Hit yes

Now you can fill the hole with a rune! Buy/Craft an appropriate level rune and right click it. Your mouse cursor will turn into a cogwheel, and simply click the piece of gear again. Another window will appear saying “Runes will be mounted”. Click it to confirm, and voila! You have successfully socketed your gear with aRune!